BATTERS:3b alex rodriguez cf carlos beltran1b adrian gonzalez as long as you wantc geo sotoc carlos santana as long as you wantss jose reyes 2b chase utley as long as you wantrf corey hartcf austin jacksonlf carlso leecf colby rasmus

PITCHERS:brett anderson as long as you wantjohn axford daniel bardjosh beckett trevor cahilmatt cain as long as you wantcc sabathia as long as you want - even tho I don't see him doing too much 2+ yrs from nowjuan guitierezhong chih kuomatt cappsfernando rodney

Stills such a tough call between long-term keeping arod or santana. I don't like to be the guy who over-values young prospect type guys, no matter how highly regarded they are, at the expense of proven studs like arod. Only his health and age make this even debatable for me --- I'm in contention every year in my league (a keeper started almost a 10 years ago) and if arod remains an impact bat at 3B for just 2 more seasons, santana would need to be an elite catcher over that time to make it worth me keeping him. And then maybe reyes makes a case for the spot if I do decide this is my last year with arod?

For pitchers -- I generally agree not to pay for saves, but I feel the same way about starters -- there are always surplus guys late in the draft and on the wire, so I could go either way there and not be too worried about it. But the consensus is beckett over cahill? I'd like to agree on that one too with the price I paid for beckett....hope he doesn't burn me, but on the pitching side, the decisions aren't so tough, and the consequences aren't so high.

I'm in a 10 team, yahoo roto 6 x 6 keeper league (ops. and quality starts the extra cats.) EAch team gets to keep 3 batters for as long as we want, and 2 JUST for next year, 3 pitchers for as long as we want, and 2 just for next year. Here are my possible choices...

For batters, I'm leaning toward arod, utley, and agonz for as long as I want, and reyes and one of the catchers for just this year. For pitchers -- cain, sabathia and anderson, and then maybe axford and cahil.

Any ideas/help is appreciated...I'll help in return if I can.

Keep those guys forever and then for this year, Reyes, a-Rod, Axford and Capps

It really boils down to this....would you rather have carlos santana for just this year and arod for the next 2, or the other way around...santana for 2 years, and arod just this year. Unless santana is a surefire superstar at mauer's level, and will be really productive for the next 2 seasons, I feel like arod makes me more competitive the next 2 seasons.

However -- I have all the respect in the world for the posters here....if santana is the way to go, please keep convincing me!

Darth Danielus wrote:Awould you rather have carlos santana for just this year and arod for the next 2, or the other way around...

I'd rather have Santana for the two years. He's better trade bait that way, too, if you have doubts about him. A-rod is getting up there and could fall off fast. (Though I'm a Sox fan and that could be some wishful thinking...) I wouldn't want to count on a 37-year-old down the stretch in a couple years.

It really boils down to this....would you rather have carlos santana for just this year and arod for the next 2, or the other way around...santana for 2 years, and arod just this year. Unless santana is a surefire superstar at mauer's level, and will be really productive for the next 2 seasons, I feel like arod makes me more competitive the next 2 seasons.

However -- I have all the respect in the world for the posters here....if santana is the way to go, please keep convincing me!

I am in the camp that thinks Arod is in his age decline phase and no matter how good he was, he won't be worth that much by next year. I expect Arod & Santana to be about the same value next year. I also think Beckett is better than Axford and should bounce back nicely this season. However, I would hedge my bets and only keep him for one year, he seems to alternate up/down years.